Improvement in trusses for the cure of hernia



I Trzzgyx I 17 /4 5. P0714872 fed/770721 4/537.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ELIJ AH JAQUITH, OF BRATTLEBOROUGH, VERMONT.

IMPROVEMENT IN TRUSSES FOR THE CURE OF HERNIA.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 143, dated March 11, 1837.

To a. whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ELIJAH JA UITH, of Brattleborough, in the county of Windham and State of Vermont, have invented a new and Improved Mode of Constructing Trusses for Hernia; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof.

The nature of my invention consists in a lock or hinge which is so constructed as to add to the elasticity and consequent ease of the instrument, and also to enable the patient to give at will any direction or degree of intensity to the pressure, and also to transform the truss from a right one to a left, and vice versa, at pleasure.

The hoop or spring which clasps the patients body terminates at its front end in a round wire about two and a half inches long and about a quarter of an inch in diameter,

and where the hoop ceases to be flat and begins to be round one of the flat shoulders projects farther onto the round wire than the other. On this round wire turns a hollow cylinder about two and a quarter inches long, to which the pad is attached, (in a manner hereinafter described,) and this cylinder has ferrules at each end with notches or cogs fitted to receive the fiat projecting shoulder, and when once the right inclination is given to the pad the patient confines it by a nut which screws onto the end of the round wire and presses the cylinder firmly against the shoulder, and the cogs prevent its turning till the nut is unscrewed and a new inclination given. By changing the ends of this cylinder and presenting the other ferrule withits cogs to the shoulder the truss is changed from a right one to a left, or from a left to a right at pleasure; but in order to give the instrument additional elasticity another spring is applied, and so applied that its force will act in the direction which the patient shall find most comfortable. It is effected as follows: A strap of stiff sheet-brass is doubled over this hollow cylinder and its two legs firmly riveted together, and both of them near their end firmly confined to the back of the pad by a screw, thus forming another hinge or joint by means of this loop of brass turning on the outside of the hollow cylinder. Now to prevent its turning and to hold the brass strap with its pad sufficiently steady, make a staple of wire of the proper width to drop onto the back of the brass strap and slide it up as near the hollow cylinder as possible, (allowing at the same time the strap of brass to occupy the middle of the hollow cylinder being equidistant from either ferrule;) then with the legs of this wire staple wind the vacant spaces on the hollow cylinder between the strap of brass and the ferrules at each end, cut off any superfluous wire from the legs, and then dovetail and solder their ends into the ferules. This loop of wire thus winding the hollow cylinder and passing over the back of the strap which holds the pad gives it an agreeable elasticity and holds it in the place and presses it in the direction found to be most comfortable.

The above will give an idea of the instrument; but in practice perhaps the manufacture maybe more easily effected by inverting the process-that is, prepare the holes into which the wires are to be soldered before the ferrules are soldered on. Then solder them to the hollow cylinder. Then out the legs of the wire staple to the length ascertained to be sufficient to occupy the vacant spaces. Then solder and dovetail their ends into the holes in the ferrules. the wire loop is wound up to its full tension. What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The above describedlock acting by mean of the cogs and nut and the above-described coiled-wire spring.

ELIJAH J'AQUITH.

. Witnesses:

J ONA D. BRADLEY, GEORGE W. GARY.

Then turn the pad back till 

